


Chasing Cars

by Ikkleosu



Category: Peter Kay's Car Share (TV)
Genre: F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-01-27
Updated: 2018-01-27
Packaged: 2019-03-10 08:17:02
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 6,541
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13498130
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Ikkleosu/pseuds/Ikkleosu
Summary: It seems like all forms of transport are working against John, as he tries to make his fantasy of going after Kayleigh on the motorway, a reality.





	Chasing Cars

**Author's Note:**

> Couple of caveats. I have played fast and loose with a couple of things:  
> 1) The British laws of impounding cars  
> 2) The bus routes of the Manchester area. I have no idea where John and Kayleigh are meant to be when Kayleigh gets out of the car in 2x04, or what buses go where from there so I made up bus routes.
> 
> Also, it may aid your enjoyment of this story if you imagine Bobby Ball as the Taxi Driver, and Tommy Cannon as the policeman. It certainly did for me when I was writing it.

“I walked under a bus,  
Got hit by a train,  
Keep falling in love,  
Which is kinda the same.

I’ve sunk out at sea,  
Crashed my car,  
Gone insane,  
And it felt so good,  
I wanna do it again.” - Buses and Trains, Bachelor Girl

It had seemed more romantic in his mind. The reality was much more… sweaty. Leaving the safety of his car and making his way through the traffic jam wasn't a decision John had arrived at easily, or swiftly. The phone call from his Nana had come at his lowest moment, when the bump of reality had turned his fantasies to dust. He was done. Enough is enough. This was everything he’d ever feared. It hurt too much. He’d hurt Kayleigh too much. It was messy and painful and complicated, and he yearned for the ease of his old life. He wanted to slip back into the cocoon of safety he had been living in for the past couple of years, when the only women he had to worry about upsetting were blood relatives.

He was adamant... And then he saw the taxi pull ahead and panic welled inside him. Kayleigh's words “out of your life” echoed round his head and made him break out in a cold sweat. He couldn't imagine a greater horror at that point, as he put the car in gear and moved forward with the slow rumbling traffic. 

But unlike his fantasy, there was no pulling into the other lane, no making a move. Instead he stayed exactly where he was, gripping the steering wheel and swearing. 

It was stupid, stupid, stupid, stupid to even dream of going after her. He couldn't do anything about it. This was his fate, to be alone. He had accepted it a long time ago, he just needed to get used to it again.

But every inch the taxi pulled away from him, he knew he could never accept that life now. He needed Kayleigh; wanted her more than he had ever wanted anything in his life. He just needed to man up and do something about it.

This back and forth had gone on for a torturously long time, until finally the moment he realised he could no longer make out the flash of Kayleigh's red hair in the back of the taxi. He was losing her, literally. 

Moments later the slow traffic came to a stand still again and, before he could second guess himself, he opened the door and stepped into the road.

There were a few odd stares from the drivers of the cars around him, but no outrage as he’d imagined - but then, he wasn't clambering over bonnets and boots. Instead he was squeezing between overheating cars with exasperated drivers who mostly looked at him with envy for not being stuck behind the wheel.

Nor was there a pounding rock ballad to soundtrack his journey, just the hum of the engines and snatches of half a dozen songs as he passed by cars with open windows. The last notes of Marillion’s Kayleigh were long lost behind him in his reverie.

Squeezing past the bloke taking a piss against the front wheel of his Land Rover finally killed any remnants of romantic notions he had left, and he began to feel more insane and tragic by the second. As he neared the taxi his heart beat faster. Sweat trickled down his forehead and he could only imagine what he looked like - red faced with heat and ashen with fear.

Still, the traffic showed no signs of moving.

He crossed the carriageway and could now clearly make out Kayleigh in the back of the cab, her head down and her hair hanging in front of her face. She didn't see him approach.

“Kayleigh…” he said through the open window as he stood at the side of the car.

Kayleigh gave a squeal and leapt a foot in the air. 

“What the… John?!” Recovering from the surprise, her hand over her heart, she didn't look quite as happy to see him as he’d fantasized.

“Please come back,” he pleaded.

Kayleigh looked around and strained to look out the back window of the cab. “What are you doing? Where’s the car?” 

There was an air of panic in her voice, no doubt from his frantic look.

“I left it… please, Kayleigh, get back in.” He placed his hands on the open window but didn't have the audacity to open the car door

“Hey, mate, what’s your problem? I’ve got a passenger!” The driver turned round and waved a dismissive hand in John’s direction.

“John! Are you off your head?” Kayleigh exclaimed, brushing her palm across her face to push away the drying tears on her cheeks. “Go back to the car. I told you, I’m done.”

The unknowing repetition of his own words cut John to the core. How could he even have thought such a thing? 

“Well, maybe I’m not…”

Kayleigh looked exasperated and glanced down at the phone in her hand.

“Hey love, is this guy bothering you? Want me to shift him?” The taxi driver threw John a menacing look over his shoulder as he spoke.

“Christ…” John held up his hands to show his innocence.

“No, no, it’s okay,” Kaleigh put up a dismissive hand but threw John a look that said “don't relax yet”.

John gave a small placating smile. “Just let me talk to you, please?” 

“There’s nothing to say… I said everything I need to…”

“Well, I haven't," John pleaded, returning his hands to the window and daring to lean in. “Did you hear the dedication? Did you hear the song?”

“What song?”

“On Forever FM.. just now…” John knew the answer to the question, but somehow he hoped fate that helped him. Maybe someone had heard it and contacted her to let her know.

“Don't pollute my passengers with that shite, mate. Classic FM here…” the taxi driver turned up the volume on the radio to illustrate, as Madame Butterfly filled the cab.

Typical. Fate was giving him the finger. And as if to further prove the point, the traffic ahead of them began to move forward.

“Christ on a bike,” John panicked. “Please Kayleigh just give me a few minutes, let me drive you home. I’ll explain. This cab must be costing you a fortune as it is!”

“Hey! Fair rates here buddy, it's not my fault traffic’s caught up more than your mum’s knickers!” 

John glared at the taxi driver who just shrugged and turned his attention back to the road. 

“I don't think that's a good idea, John… I think we’ve come to the end of the road…”

As Kayleigh spoke, John felt the vibrations of the car change as the driver put it into gear to move ahead. 

No. No. This was not going to happen. Fate could take a run and jump. Without a second thought John leapt in front of the taxi, his arms and legs spread.

“'Sake mate! What the hell? Step aside and let me past!” the taxi driver implored out his window as inside the car Kaleigh leant forwards to see through the windscreen.

“I’m going nowhere!” John declared as traffic began to move around them and horns began to blare. He could see Kayleigh now looking through the partition behind the driver’s head. He was sure he could see a smile behind the hand she had covering her mouth in shock.

“Kayleigh! Get out and just hear me out, please!” He begged again, as the driver revved the engine threateningly.

“I’ve got insurance, buddy. It makes no odds to me if I break both your legs. Get out the way and let the lady go. Take a hint man!”

Take a hint. Take a bloody hint. Why hadn't he done that before now? Why hadn't he done that weeks ago? Why hadn't he taken the hint by the shoulders and kissed it square on the mouth the night it danced in front of him dressed as Hagrid? Why hadn't he taken the hint by the hand and led it home after a trip to a Safari park? Why hadn't he embraced it the hundreds of times it smiled at him from the passenger seat? No, taking the hint was not something he was very good at, why start now?

John closed his eyes and braced for the inevitable impact, but it didn't come.

“Seriously, mate, you're not that big. Do you think you can't be moved? Cos I’m quite happy to come out there and move you myself…”

“The Man Who Can't Be Moved, The Script, 2006. Cracking song,” John said, feigning nonchalance.

“You’re off your fucking head, mate.” The driver reached for the door handle, but as he did John heard Kayleigh's voice closer.

“John!” she declared, her voice irritated but still holding a warmth that made his heart sing.

He opened his eyes to see her standing by the taxi.

“For goodness sake, you’ll get yourself killed… okay, talk...” she sighed.

Relief flooded through John. “In the car. We have to get back to the car!” He reached for her hand and started to pull her away back towards the place where it has all unravelled, and the only place he could imagine putting it right again.

“Hey! You haven't paid! Lady! Is this some kind of scam?!” the taxi driver yelled, stopping them in their tracks. 

“Shit!” Kayleigh declared, let go of John's hand and pulled at her bag rummaging for her purse.

John sighed “Christ!”, stuck his hand into his pocket, and pulled out his wallet. “Here, keep the change!” He chucked a £20 note into the open passenger window and returned to Kayleigh, dragging her nearly off her feet.

“Alright John, I’m not Sally Gunnell you know!” 

“The traffic’s moving we have to get back to the car!” 

Pushing against the flow of traffic, sweat making his shirt cling to his back and greasing the hand he was desperately clinging to Kayleigh with wasn't quite the epic ending to his fantasy. But he had her and he wasn't going to let go, that was the important part.

Although, now he had her hand in his the sanity was returning to him and a panic over what he’d done was rising in his logic brain. Leaving the car in the middle of traffic!! God he would pay for this, and as they neared the spot he had left the Fiat he saw how right he was.

“Bloody great!” he muttered as the neon yellow of the policeman's high-vis jacket stuck out behind the Green Flag van that was now moving slowly down the carriageway past them. The traffic was crawling along but still in the time he had been away, it was enough to cause a hold up. The policeman had propped his bike up in front of the Fiat and was waving the traffic around the obstacle.

“Oh my god, John, it's the police! Why on earth did you leave the car?” 

John gave Kayleigh an exasperated look as they slowed down and neared the car. “Because you buggered off didn't you!”

Kayleigh tugged her hand away, “Yes and I still don't know why I’ve come back!” 

John looked at her in horror. This entire thing was like a rollercoaster, and any given moment it could fly off the rails into disaster.

“I promise I will explain, please just let me sort this out.”

“Fine!” Kayleigh folded her arms and wandered off to the safety of the side of the road as John approached the officer.

“Excuse me, excuse me,” he said as the officer turned round to see him. “This is my car, I’m sorry I had to go…”

The policeman turned to give John his full attention. “It’s your vehicle, sir?” He took his notepad out of his pocket and poised to write. “And what was the problem?” 

“Well, officer, you see my…” John paused. His what? He thought of the conversation they had had just half an hour ago. Car share buddies, friends... Kayleigh's voice swirling round his head - “I just thought we were more than that”. Those had been the words that had set fire to the embers that had been smoking away inside him so long. “My... Kayleigh, got out because she… we...had a misunderstanding and I had to go after…”

The more he talked the more perplexed the policeman looked. “With the CAR sir, what’s the problem with the car?” He jabbed in the direction of the Fiat with his pen.

“Oh, oh, nothing.” Relief coursed through John that he didn't have to explain the mess he’d just waded through.

“You mean you’ve not broken down? There’s nothing wrong with your vehicle?”

“No, nothing at all, thank goodness, about the only part of my life not falling apart.” John gave an anxious laugh but the policeman's face didn't flicker. “Anyway, it's fine, I can take it away now.”

“You can but you won't,” he said returning his attention to his notepad, the traffic once again at a stand still around them. 

“What?”

“Sir, you abandoned your vehicle in the middle of moving traffic- ”

“Well, strictly speaking it wasn't moving,” John interrupted then immediately regretted it. He glanced round at Kayleigh who made a “what’s happening" gesture.

“In the middle of moving traffic-,” the policeman continued. “That's an offence. I am going to have to call this in and have your car impounded… Mr?”

“Redmond. John Redmond.” He pulled his wallet out and handed over his driving license. “Are you serious?!” This day was going from bad to worse. Well, actually it had gone from farcical to soul destroying, but he didn't think that was such a catchy idiom.

“Sir, it is an offense to abandon your vehicle, with no flashing indicators, no warnings, nothing to indicate the obstructive nature of the vehicle.”

“Bloody hell!” John rubbed his head and tried to think quickly. He looked back at Kayleigh who was now looking back over at the canal, likely finding something more interesting to look at than him grappling with a traffic cop. “Look, I am sorry, it was an emergency, I had to…”

The policeman arched an incredulous eyebrow at that.

“Can't I just pay a fine and be on my way? I won't do it again. Extenuating circumstances…” John gestured subtly to Kayleigh behind him.

Despite giving Kayleigh a scrutinizing look, the officer seemed unmoved and continued writing on his pad. “Oh you'll pay the fine alright...£200 to have it removed from the impound.”

“Jesus wept! Are you serious?! I already forked out £140 for a fortress deadlock today… and twenty quid on a blood taxi I didn't even step foot in.”

“Not your day then, sir, is it?” the policeman said with just a touch too much smugness for John to take.

“Look mate…” 

The policeman’s pen hovered over his paper as he gave John a hard glare. 

“Officer…” John continued with more humility than he felt. Desperate times and all that. “Let me be totally honest with you…”

“That'd be a refreshing change right enough…”

“You see that woman behind me?” John leaned in conspiratorially and lowered his voice. “About twenty minutes ago, she told me she loved me.”

John tried not to be offended at the look of surprise that crossed the policeman’s face as he glanced from John to Kayleigh and back again, or the smirk that was playing around the left side of his mouth as he did so.

“And I fu… mucked it up. I was a bloody idiot. And I didn't say it back, and now she thinks I don't love her, but I do. And she left the car upset. I had to go and get her, let know I was stupid, I've been stupid a long time. God, the number of times I should have… I mean I had an inkling, you know? Maybe she liked me like that way… But I wasn't sure… and I was so scared of messing it up which is exactly what I’ve done now… and the funny thing is… well not funny ha-ha… but I sent a msg in to the radio. I was going to tell her! Well, let them tell her for me really… but she got there first and I just wasn't ready… so when she pushed it I just thought… Christ, and then when she opened the door! If she'd just waited another thirty seconds…”

John suddenly became aware of how long he’d been talking and he looked to see the policeman still staring at him with half a smirk on his face. Panicked, John turned round, expecting to see Kayleigh standing right behind him having heard everything. But no, she was still on the side of the road, leaning on the railing and looking decidedly unimpressed.

“Well in that case, Mr Redmond,” the officer said, holding out John’s driving licence. 

John smiled, hope and relief flooding over him as he took it back. 

“...You’ll have plenty to talk about on the walk home.”

The officer ripped the citation from his pad and held it out to a flabbergasted John, as the orange flashing light of a tow truck hove into view. John snatched the ticket from the officer and opened his mouth, then thought better of it.

“You can collect your car anytime after 10am tomorrow… address is on the back…” the policeman said as he guided the tow truck into the space in front of John’s car. 

John turned to walk back to Kayleigh, who was now looking at the tow truck in front of her with confusion and gesturing wildly to John. John stuffed the ticket and licence back in his pocket.

“Oh shit… me phone!” He patted his pockets to make sure, then turned back to the policeman who was already mounting his bike. 

“I’ve left me phone, can I get it?” he shouted above the noise of the motorbike engine. The policeman nodded then jerked his head towards the car. John wasted no time in dashing over and opening the car door. As he searched around the seat for his phone he contemplated just sitting down, closing the door and locking himself in. A sit down protest against this highway robbery. But he knew he had already stretch Kayleigh’s patience thinner than Alan Campbell's comb-over, and the day was already running away from him.

“Thanks for that!” he shouted, waving the phone at the policeman to show he’d retrieved it, and was surprised when the policeman beckoned him over.

“Christ, what now?!” he said under his breath. “Thanks for that!” he repeated as he reached the officer, who was just about to put his helmet on.

“Yeah well, I’d say you need all the help with communicating you can get,” the officer said dryly. “Now you won't go doing that again…”

“No, no, no, course not. Scouts honour!” John raised his fingers to his temple in what he hopped was the correct formation. Scouts had never been his thing. Too much running around in a stuffy church hall. “I shall never leave a vehicle unattended, officer. I’ve learned me lesson.”

“Aye, well, and hopefully you’ve learned your lesson there too?” The policeman nodded towards Kayleigh. “Punching way above your weight there.” He looked pointedly at John’s stomach, before finally snapping his visor down. 

John stood gaping for a moment, before clenching his teeth and walking over to where Kayleigh stood watching in astonishment as the tow truck pulled the Fiat away.

“John… John… what’s going on? What's wrong with the car?” 

“Nothing… come on…” He went to reach for her hand but Kayleigh pulled hers away and crossed her arms. 

“I am not moving a step until you tell me what's going on!”

John rubbed his forehead. His romantic notions seemed so far in the past, it felt like they had dinosaurs starring in them. He was a sweaty, grubby, red faced mess. Kayleigh was tear-stained and icy. How could he tell her now? Oh by the way all of this mess is cos I am madly in love with you but don't have the balls to tell you to your face? 

Old John had come alive and was running amok in his mind with doubts and excuses. He should tell her later. In better circumstances. When there was less chance she was contemplating murdering him and chucking his body in the canal. 

“They’ve impounded the car cos I abandoned it. I can go and pick it up tomorrow.” 

Kayleigh bit her lip and gasped. “John! And what do we do now?”

“We start walking and hope another taxi comes past.” John looked up the lanes of traffic which were now moving at a steady pace but no taxi in sight. Obviously.

“Walking where?” Kayleigh asked as John began to trudge down the road.

“To the bus stop…”

“Bus stop? John, we’re on the dual carriageway, where’s there a bus stop?” Kayleigh looked all around anxiously as she kept pace beside John. 

“There's one at the industrial estate, at the big roundabout.”

“That's miles away!” From the horror in Kayleigh’s voice, you'd have think he'd said it was in Timbuktu.

John shrugged angrily. “Well, we don't have much choice, do we?”

He wasn't entirely sure who he was angry at now. The policeman, Kayleigh, himself? Well, of course he knew but his brain ran interference and kept throwing “Well, if only..” at him. If only Kayleigh had heard the message, if only the traffic hadn't been so bad, if only they’d made it back to the car thirty seconds earlier. But all of it came down to one thing… it only he’d had the guts to tell her the truth when she asked. His brain just refused to settle on that, instead he found a song lyric stuck like an old vinyl, going round and round the same stanza in his mind…

“You walk out alone and I follow you,  
The noise of the city you know that I know,  
And I think that you know that I’ll only love you tonight.”

When he eventually paid attention to the lyric, he scoffed out loud. Wow, he’d managed to Mystic Meg his own future and write a song that predicted the events. If the day wasn't going so bloody badly, he’d think it was a good time to buy a lottery ticket. 

Truthfully, a girl walking out on John wasn't exactly a new thing so it was hardly a risky prediction that it was going to happen again. And he’d followed girls before, way past the point of dignity, but this was different. In the past, he knew the women knew they had him hook, line and sinker. They were all too aware of how devoted, and frankly desperate he was, and they’d used it to their advantage - Anna had been expert at it, always knowing whatever she did he’d take her back. That wasn't love, not from him, not from her.

This was a whole other world. It was a world where he’d pushed the knowledge Kayleigh loved him aside; where he’d done his best to make sure she didn't know what he felt. He didn't want her to know he’d only love her tonight, and every other night. He was too afraid of what that would mean; too afraid of examining it in the light; too afraid of making it real. 

But it was real now. And he was at risk of that last line of the verse never becoming fact. 

Very quickly the pathway had vanished into a scrubby verge as they trudged down the side of the road, forcing them to walk in single file. Despite the sun lowering in the sky, the day was still unbelievably warm, and quickly John shrugged off his jacket and folded it under his arm. A few minutes later he watched Kayleigh, a few steps ahead of him do the same, placing her folded coat over her bag without looking back at him. 

They hadn't spoken since they'd started walking. The traffic was flowing freely now, the noise would make it difficult to hear anyway, but he suspected Kayleigh was giving him the cold shoulder. Or the sweaty one. And she was right too. His fantasies of a romantic conclusion to the day had now had, not one, but three false starts. Hollywood kissing in the middle of a cheering crowd had become walking in silence and trying not to get run over. 

Without the car he felt a bit lost. He realised that it had become a safety blanket, the little bubble where he and Kayleigh were together, laughing, singing, talking, being John and Kayleigh without any of the outside world encroaching in. Now he was without it, he didn't know how to begin, how to be. He felt they’d been cut adrift and he could see Kayleigh floating away.

Just at that moment, Kayleigh did indeed vanish from his line of sight. She dropped to an awkward squat as her left leg shot down into thin air, a deceptive clump of grass hiding the edge of the verge. Instinctively John leant forward and caught her under the arms, pulling her back to her feet.

“Jesus! Watch yourself, nearly did yourself in there!” he exclaimed as he came round to face her.

Kayleigh reached past John to her phone which had landed in the grass as she’d tripped.

“No wonder you tripped, what are you doing looking at that thing? You’ll get yourself killed!”

Kayleigh righted her skirt and nodded down the verge. “I’m fine! I was hardly gonna fall to my death, was I?” 

John followed her line of the sight to the approximate one foot drop down to the canal side. “Yeah, well Christ knows what you might have landed on. Probably more needles done there than on a Christmas tree. Watch where you’re putting your feet.”

“Yes, John,” Kayleigh rolled her eyes. “And I was texting our Mandy. Clearly I’m going to be late, aren't I? Didn't want her worrying... thank God I left her the key.” 

Kayleigh looked as stressed as John felt. He wished he could go back to trying to pull her through the window and start the day all over again. Maybe they should have sat there, either side of Mandy’s front room and talked the day away. Kayleigh couldn't have walked out at the wrong moment when she was locked in the house. And maybe he would have had more courage to tell her how he felt with Everest triple glazing between them?

Suddenly Kayleigh's face brightened. “Ooh but see what I did, there?”

“Nearly fell on your arse?” 

“No! I squatted in heels! I’d make Beyonce proud.” She gave a grin that warmed John’s heart.

“Aye... just don't put your back out, I’m not carrying you to the bus stop.” John reached for her hand and this time she didn't refuse. He led the way along the side of the road, with Kayleigh traipsing behind him, her hand gently squeezing his.

 

“Praise the Lord!” John said as they rounded the bend and the glorious sight of the bus stop appeared in front of them. 

Kayleigh followed with a tired “woooo”.

There were already a couple of occupants taking up the first two spots in the queue when they arrived, leaving one perching seat left. “On you go,” John nodded, reluctantly letting go of Kayleigh’s hand and letting her move in front of him to take the seat. She let out an exaggerated sigh and wiggled her ankles, while John looked at the timetable behind her head. 

“Should be a bus here in a few minutes… if it's on time, which the bastards never are.” John leaned his shoulder on the plexiglass and looked down at Kayleigh. There were little rivulets of sweat running down her neck that made him gulp and cast his eyes out to the road.

“Bus to where, John?” Kayleigh asked, her voice softer than usual.

“Home, of course. We’re not going back to work. It's not that late!”

“Yeah but whose home?” 

Christ. He hadn't thought of that. They would need to get two different buses to two different places. Probably just as well, nothing in his day had gone right. It really was not the time to try and explain to the love of your life you were crazy about her but crapping your pants at the idea of confessing it, because you were certain you’d mess everything up. That result seemed a foregone conclusion today, frankly.

“Well, the 4a will take you to Bury... stops a couple of streets from your Mandy’s. I’ll wait, get the 16. It's only a few minutes later…” He studied the timetables closely, knowing he was avoiding her gaze.

“I thought you wanted to talk?” Her voice was harder now, stronger, but when he glanced down he saw she was picking at her fingers nervously.

“I do…” He looked up and made eye contact with the old woman sitting along from Kayleigh. “It’s just not the right time.”

“It’s never the right time.” 

John closed his eyes. “Look, we'll go home, forget today ever happened, and-”

“Maybe you can forget, John, but I can't,” Kayleigh snapped. “And if you want to forget it, that says it all.”

John felt the ears of the woman and the teenage girl in front of them were now trained on them and he cringed at the thought. “That's not what I meant...”

“What do you mean?” 

“If we just wait until t-”

“I told you John, I can't wait anymore.”

If Kayleigh's hard tone frightened him, this tone broke his heart. The pain in her voice was so clear, he wanted to just take it all away. If only she’d heard his message, none of this would have happened. He rubbed his head and squeezed his eyes tightly shut willing away the threatening tears. It couldn't unravel again, he couldn't take it.

“If you’d just waited, just another minute it would…”

Kayleigh stood up sharply, causing John to step back and bump into the man who had joined the queue behind him unseen. John mumbled an apology, but the man just smirked.

“It would what? How would another minute make a difference John, when I told you…” She stopped mid-sentence and looked past John. He looked over his shoulder. 

“Number 4a.” 

When he turned back, Kayleigh had hauled her bag in front of her, resting it on the seat and was raking through it. “John! I’ve just remembered. I’ve no cash!” 

She pulled her purse out, as the other occupants of the shelter stood and began shuffling forwards. Opening it, she tipped it upside down to illustrate its lack of content.

“Christ on a bike! And how were you going to pay for that taxi?”

“I was going to get him to stop at a hole in wall before we got far, wasn't I?” Kayleigh gesticulated wildly as she stuffed her purse back in her bag.

“Most expensive day of my bloody life… Look I’ll pay and come with you to Bury, then get a bus home, alright?”

Kayleigh shook her head violently as she put her things back together and swung her bag on her shoulder. “No, no, John, you said yourself, just forget it…” 

“And I said it's not what I meant…”

The bus had pulled to a stop now, and the others in the queue climbed aboard. John opened his wallet and moving in front of Kayleigh, stepped up onto the bus. “Oh shit…” 

“What?” Kayleigh said, looking up at him from the pavement.

“I gave my last £20 to your bloody taxi driver, didn't I?” 

Kayleigh’s hand flew to her mouth. 

“I've got some shrapnel in me pocket, hang on…” He pulled everything out his trouser pocket and rifled through it as Kayleigh looked on worriedly. “How much is a single?” 

“Two twenty,” came the drivers voice from behind John. The old lady in front of him was already struggling down the bus to a seat, as the driver patiently waited for John to find his fare.

“Three ten… three twenty five… shit, we’re over a pound short… you sure you don't have anything?”

Kayleigh put her hand in her jacket pocket. “Got a trolley token?”

John gave her a look.

“Only one of us can go…” Kayleigh reached the conclusion, but in the midst of the panic and stress, it was the one thing John had decided he wasn't going to do. Nope. If she got on that bus alone, he might never see her again. They would go together or not at all. But all he did outwardly was shake his head.

“Mate, you don't take credit cards do you?” he pleaded to the bus driver, who looked at him like he'd just asked to snog his granny.

“For fuck’s sake, you’re holding everyone up… just move aside will you?” The man who had been behind them in the queue was now trying to push past Kayleigh, who was standing her ground firmly.

“You don't have a pound you could lend us, do you?” John chanced.

“No, I fucking don't, now get off or get on just make your bloody mind up.” The man squeezed past Kayleigh, making her stumble sideways.

It was the straw that broke the camel's back. John put his hand out against the man’s chest and stopped him climbing aboard.

“I’ve made me mind up, mate.” John spat the term of endearment out. “I have decided that I have had enough. I've had enough of this day shitting me around…”

“Get your hand off me, or I’ll-”

“You’ll what? Punch me in the face? Go for it, cos I am telling you you can't do any more damage to me than the rest of this day. You want to know the day I’ve had? I had to pick up my nan at the crack of arse this morning to take her to mine to wait for a parcel that arrived thirty seconds after I walked out the door. I forked out £140 for a new lock on someone else's house because my dozy friend here managed to get herself locked IN…”

He saw Kayleigh scrunch up her face in embarrassment at that, while the man just looked blankly at John, whose hand still pressed against his chest.

“ … and the key was under the plant pot all the time. I was late for work, missed a conference call, pissed off my boss. Then I paid £20 for a taxi that went about twenty feet that I wasn't even in. My car got towed, and I am going to have to pay £200 to get that back. And now I don’t even have enough money for a bus home. I’ve been mocked by a policeman, fell off a wheelie bin, cried, shouted and sweated so much I think my pants might be disintegrating. And you know what tops it all off?”

The dumbfounded man shook his head, stunned into silence by the tirade.

“For once in my life, I tried to do something romantic, I sent Forever FM a dedication, a dedication that THIS ONE…” He pointed to Kayleigh who was standing with her mouth open and a look of bemusement on her face. “...would know was a message telling her I love her.”

He daren't look at Kayleigh now, but he heard her gasp. In fact, he heard more than one person gasp as he realised the entire bus was eavesdropping.

“But of course, I cocked that up, got her so upset she left the car before she heard it. But you know what? It’s okay. All of that… all of that that happened....And it’s still the best day of my life…” John finally dropped his hand from the man’s chest as his raged voice became calmer. “... because before she walked out the car she told me she loved me. That gorgeous, insane, drives-me-halfway-round-the-bend-and-back-again, ray of sunshine of a woman loves me. Me!” He prodded his own chest.

“So, fine, punch me, leave me in the gutter, do whatever you like. I don’t care. All I care about is that this woman knows I am wildly, madly, stupidly in love with her and I have been too cowardly to say it in case I did something wrong. But hey, after today, what have I got to lose?”

There was a deathly silence when John finally stopped talking. He couldn't bare to look at Kayleigh, so he maintained eye contact with the man in front of him who looked at him pityingly. He felt a tug on his sleeve, and looked round to see the old woman from the bus stop.

“Here, dearie…” She held out £2 in a shaking hand. John took the coins, thanked her and put the money into the drivers slot. 

“Two singles to Bury please.” He felt in a daze. As he ripped off the tickets and walked the length of the bus he felt every eye was on him, silence still cast over the enthralled passengers.

He found a space on the long seat at the back and sat down with a thud. Looking to his left he saw a teenage boy staring back at him, holding one ear bud halfway to his head.

“Got a problem?” John snapped, causing a hurried shake of the head and stuffing in of the earphone.

John hadn't even heard Kayleigh approach, but when he turned back she was standing in front of him, tears on her cheeks. He held out her ticket to her silently. She took it and sat down, pulling her bag onto her lap, and stared straight ahead. 

Finally the bus began to fill with chatter and the hissy noise of music filtered through earphones, the rumble of the engine moving into gear drowning it all out.

He didn't know how long the bus had been moving when he heard Kayleigh speak.

“Did you mean it?” she asked, still staring out at the rest of the bus.

“Yeah.”

“All of it?”

“All of it.” 

John turned to be met with her eyes gazing back at him - shining with moisture, brown and warm as honey. She grinned, and he couldn't help but match her expression. He felt giddy, almost drunk. 

“Idiot,” she said quietly, then grabbed the lapels of his jacket and kissed him hard.

John put his hands to her face and kissed her back ferociously. He was vaguely aware of the sound of applause, before he lost all sense of reality and floated off somewhere to a cloud as their kiss became slower and deeper.

They didn't notice when the teenage boy said excuse me, tried to squeeze past and half sat on John’s lap to get off the bus.

By the time they rang the bell for Bury, John was wearing most of Kayleigh's lipstick, and one of her hair extensions was hanging off her head, yet all was right with the world.

“Thanks for the ride, mate,” John called to the driver as he opened the door for them. 

“You enjoy yours!” the driver sniggered back.


End file.
